As soon as the contract was officially finalized, Oliver went to the room on the second floor first and started organizing his things.
Fortunately, there was a small bathroom and toilet in the living space on the second floor
According to what he heard, there were many houses that did not have these two.
In addition, there was a bed and a small refrigerator, and a desk powered by mana fuel in the room.
Suddenly, Oliver thought that Murphy might have found a good place on purpose in consideration for him.
"Um, he's a kind man."
As Oliver muttered, he opened the large glutton bag and took out the luggage he bought from the market.
There were blankets, pillows, hangers for storing clothes, and some simple daily supplies.
"It's perfect," said Oliver after finishing organizing by laying a blanket on the bed, moving the desk, and putting food in the refrigerator.
After that, he went straight down to the basement, which was an important space for him.
Oliver once again took out the huge glutton bag and made it vomit.
– Uwwaaaaaaa
The glutton bag suddenly cried in dissatisfaction, maybe because it has been made to work nonstop from the time in the contamination zone.
Oliver took out a small glutton bag and forced its mouth to take out 10,000 Landa bills.
When it saw the fluttering bill, the eyes of the large glutton bag sparkled.
"Can you relax after eating this?"
Then came the reaction, one that was different from what he expected
"…? Yum! Yum! Auauauauauauaau!
Surprisingly, the large glutton bag made gestures like a human being and said something.
Oliver wondered whether the bigger they are, the more rebellious they are, and the more intelligent and self-conscious they are.
What was even more surprising was Oliver could vaguely understand what the large glutton bag was saying, although he could not understand the principle behind it.
“Um… You want me to give you a name… not the large glutton bag? A proper one?”
"Auauauauauauaauau."
"……Interesting. I think I should ask the person who made it later… So, how about [Big Mouth]? Because your mouth is big."
The large glutton bag… No, Big Mouth flapped its hands as if it liked the name.
"Auauauauauauaua.."
"I'm glad you like it. Well, I need something, can you take out the things I bought at the market?"
"Auauauauauaauau!"
"Um, you need money?”
"Auauauauauauauaua!"
After eating another 10,000 bills that Oliver gave, Big mouth started throwing up what he bought.
There was more furniture and equipment for the basement. Most of them were bought from the gray market, not the normal market.
Oliver arranged the operating table, the shelf, and various materials necessary for repairing and remodeling the Corpse dolls, as well as flasks and flask cases to store emotions, experimental mixing devices, and other experimental tools.
He didn't stop there, he kept changing the location of everything a few times to find the most efficient structure, and with that, a day passed.
The next day, Oliver had a light breakfast with bread, milk, and apples he had bought in advance at the market, and immediately began to work on the Corpse dolls.
He already repaired the damages they took during the battle with the truck robbers, but still, he could see some clumsy moves from time to time
Oliver changed his work clothes and laid the corpse dolls on the experiment table to see if there was a problem.
He loosened the tangled tendon and oiled it between the processed bones, and he looked at the book from time to time to check if it was done properly.
Fortunately, he seemed to be doing it right.
"Phew… it's a little hard."
Oliver said, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
Repairing the actual Corpse doll was also physically exhausting, and it felt a little difficult to do it alone.
Oliver thought it would be helpful if he had some kind of assistant.
‘Um… Should I make a Corpse doll to help me? Maybe two or three would be better. I need help with various experiments, so it's good to have multiple arms. Maybe I should make more [Child]?"
Oliver turned his head to the table in the corner thinking so.
There were First Child, Second Child, Third Child, and Fourth Child in the test tube, and they seemed to be hungry.
Oliver extracted the stored emotions and Life-force, mixed them together and gave everyone the right amount
The four [Child], who looked like a meatball emitting black smoke, enjoyed the emotions and Life-force Oliver gave them.
‘It's more complete than I thought.’
[Child] was something Oliver made by imitating Puppet’s artificial soul. To be exact, it was a kind of upgraded version that was incorporated into the minion by guessing the production method of the artificial soul.
He was bewildered because he did it with the intention of failing.
Obviously, it was just a clumsy artificial soul at first, but there was a desire to survive, perhaps because it was combined with the Minion.
The whining when they were hungry was proof of that.
Oliver fed emotions and Life-force as an experiment and has been raising them so far.
As a result of this, he learned three things about them.
The first was, if you feed a certain amount of Life-force and emotion, [Child] will not disappear and will continue to be maintained, and if they are hungry, they asked Oliver to give them emotions and Life-force.
The second was, they would rather express their intentions than resist Oliver.
Once as an experiment, Oliver left them to the point where they almost disappeared because he did not provide them with emotions and Life-force all day, but surprisingly, they did not get angry, they just kept giving signals that they were hungry.
That point was the same as Minions.
Oliver thought maybe it was because their intelligence was still low, but surprisingly, Child's ego became stronger and more intelligent as their survival time increased by eating Life-force and emotions, and now they are even able to distinguish circles, triangles, and squares.
Oliver wondered if maybe they'll have the same intelligence as humans if he kept raising them.
He did not know whether they would follow him then, but still, even if they didn't follow and rebelled, he thought it would be fun in its own way.
Oliver fed the four [Child] and then worked on the Corpse dolls again.
He fixed all the abnormalities, finished a simple test, and then he started renovating them. A razor and dagger were added to the limbs of the Corpse doll [Rag] to increase the surprise effect.
On the blade, not only black magic but also paralytic drugs bought from the gray market were added.
He was told that it was not fatal, but it seemed like it could double the effect of [Exhaustion].
In addition, the three-armed saber-wielding [Swordsman] was equipped with two small shotguns and a small single-shot gun, adding a surprise long-range attack
Two more arms were attached to the Corpse doll [Warlock], allowing it to use several black magic at once. In addition, the number of tanks that contained emotions was also increased to increase its combat sustainability and firepower.
The [Sniper] was given a dispersion device that sprays tear gas in all directions when the enemy is close and a spring knife that pops out abruptly.
Thanks to all this, Oliver spent a lot of compensation he received for the job in the contaminated zone, but he was quite proud when he saw the finished Corpse dolls and at that moment…
Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep
A beeping sound echoed in the basement.
It was from the communication device given by Forrest.
Oliver turned on the beetle-like communication device and held it to his ear.
– Dave?
It was the voice of Forrest. It was also in the serious voice that he spoke with when there was a job.
"Yes, Mr. Forrest."
– Do you have time? I'd like to see you in person… I’ve something you might be interested in.
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
Oliver moved quickly. The reason was simple, he needed to make money.
But he did not go right away.
First, he took important books, valuables such as corpse dolls, and [Child], and left things in the warehouse that didn't matter even if they were stolen
He left a minion that was fed with [Las Bomb] in the basement before coming out as a precaution so that it would blow up when there was an intruder.
After cleaning up, Oliver went straight to Forrest's restaurant office.
Knock, knock
"Come on in."
Oliver opened the door as soon as he heard the words.
As soon as he entered, he saw the usual well-dressed Forrest, and along with him was Coco, whom he met once or twice and had a short conversation.
He knew that she was doing business with Forrest, but he had never seen her together with him like this before, and instinctively he felt that she was involved in the job that Forrest said on the communication device.
"Welcome.’’
"How are you, Mr. Forrest?"
"Oh, that's funny."
When Oliver and Forrest were talking like they normally do, Coco interrupted and laughed as if she was having fun.
"……what's wrong?"
"Oh, I'm sorry….. It's just that, even though you’re the hottest Solver in the town these days, you’re just the same as I saw you the first time."
"Is it a bad thing?"
"Not at all. It’s the other way around. It's amazing that you’re maintaining your original intentions. Most of them can't. Especially men."
Her enigmatic words were the same, but Oliver could understand that those weren’t empty words, since he could see her emotions.
It seemed like she was really pleased with Oliver's attitude. He did not know the reason, but it didn't seem like a bad thing.
As the conversation came to a stalemate, Forrest spoke to clear the awkwardness in the air.
"If you don't mind, can you sit down first?"
Oliver sat down as he was told.
"As I said to you in advance, I called you because I have some job for you to do. I'm sorry to bother you, but I hope you understand that it's time to work."
"No, thank you. I feel the same way… And what's this important job."
Coco stepped in.
"Can this rude lady say something in the conversation between the two hot men?”
Forest gladly let her speak, and this made it clear that the important job was something that Coco brought.
"Firstly, I have a question before I start talking."
"…?"
"If a woman asks, you have to give an answer if you're a gentleman, don't you?."
"What's a gentleman?"
"…? Are you kidding me?”
"Surprisingly, Dave doesn't tell jokes. He means it all."
Forest said as if he knew because he had experienced it.
Coco, who heard the answer, said again.
"Ha… It means a man of culture and courtesy. Strong, brave, and kind to women.”
"I'm not really strong, brave, or kind."
"It doesn’t matter. It just refers to a man with a lot of money these days. Money is courage and strength… Please don't say any more.”
Oliver also tried to say that he did not have much money, but he hurriedly closed his mouth at Coco's words.
She smiled tiredly.
"Ha… Who are the clients you’ve worked for?… It should be the Magic lab, a gangster, and the city, right?"
“……”
"The magic lab was the chimera capture, and the city was cleaning the contaminated zone…. It's kind of vague to call them both full-time clients. Then Dave's only official client is a gangster belonging to the Crime Firm."
Oliver looked at Forrest.
Forrest shook his head as if saying he had said nothing, and it was actually true.
"There are no secrets in this city. If you poke a little bit, you can see everything indirectly. And that's how I make a living."
"Amazing."
"Yes, it's great, I know. That's why I also know that Dave wants to collect books on black magic and demons."
"Sorry, it was me who said that.”
Forrest said voluntarily, and Coco continued.
"Don't blame Forrest too much. I asked for information about Dave in return for something.”
"My information?"
"Yes, information collects information. That's why I can use it like this now."
Coco smiled.
"Let me ask you another question. You are slowly building your reputation as a Solver, but did you reach the goal you wanted?”
Oliver agonized.
He had many fun unexpected experiences and also collected a lot of books, but there was no progress in anything he set out for…
"No."
"Of course. What Dave is looking for is a valuable item that you can hear only once in a while. It's hard to come across unless you have a big-shot client… So what would you say, if I said that right now you got a chance to get your hands on a book about demons?"
A book about demons.
As soon as Oliver heard the word, he remembered the old man on horseback, the unknown patterns, and the entrance to hell he saw through the mouth of Puppet.
Soon, Oliver replied.
"Interesting."
(To be Continued)
